1. Field
At least one feature relates to methods and/or apparatus for the protection of products during distribution, and more particularly, to inhibit counterfeiting and/or forgery of said products during distribution.
2. Background
The pharmaceutical industry is sensitive to many threats, including, but not limited to, the distribution of counterfeit, expired, and/or tampered pharmaceutical products. Such counterfeit, expired, and/or tampered pharmaceutical products may be introduced between the manufacturer and retailer, for example, along a distribution channel. That is, in the chain of distribution and/or sales of pharmaceutical products, the risk exists for expired, counterfeit, and/or ineffective products (e.g., medicine in the form of pills, tablets, syrups, etc.). This problem is not limited to just pharmaceutical products but may also be present in the distribution of other types of products.
Some prior art approaches address this problem by adding coded data on the surface of a product that identifies the product. This data can be read by a scanner to identify the product. Other techniques applied to pharmaceutical products may use microscopic labels (often only to packages in bulk, not individual doses) or chemical tracers. The latter can be detected with expensive forensic equipment.
However, these prior art approaches fail to recognize that any such coded data may be replicated on a forged product. Additionally, these prior art approaches fail to provide a way to identify at what stage of the distribution channel a forgery may have been introduced. These prior art techniques allow for the inclusion of free-formed, encrypted, authenticated information as to a product's origin, composition, destination, etc.
Therefore, a way is needed to inhibit or prevent forged products from being introduced within a distribution channel.